Right now the job market is horrible. I see less and less listings on jobs websites. How long has everyone else been unemployed? Anyone thought of switching careers?
8 months almost. And yes… except I’m switching IN from something else, haha.
8 months here too Reeeeaally worried about that gap in the rez. Gonna have to get a job at MickeyDs pretty soon.
I feel your pain. I’ve only been out of school for two months but interviewers are already asking each other whether I’m damaged goods.
We '09 graduates are damaged goods, left out to dry. The market tanked right around the time we were looking for internships and full time work, and now that the finance industry is finally out of the red, most of the large financial institutions (and to a lessor extent some F500 companies) specifically say they only want '10 graduates, no '09 graduates for entry level hiring. Is this even legal? Guess I’m too old to get into finance…
Have you guys in the Class of '09 considered leaving the country? Like China or somewhere with GDP growth
Answering the gap question is not fun… I am torn. I have been applying to a good 20-30 jobs a day with few leads except for temporary jobs. I got offered a government job making 62k with annual raises of about 2k… When I retire I would get a inflation increasing pension of about 33% of final salary + social security + 401k(4% match). The government job would require my moving to a different state. However 40 hr work weeks (any more is considered future time off), able to do 4 day weeks after a year, 20 days vacation after 3 years, plus 13 sick days a year which carry over (and you can get paid for them when retiring) Since passing the CFA, a few companies actually saw that as a negative. One was like you’ll be bored, another two had interviewers who both failed the exam, one hedge fund wanted me to do sketchy stuff because of it (turned down job). At this point, do you guys think the CFA will go back there where one could reasonably get a 100-150k job at some point (working your way up, etc). Speaking to friends all I here is people being let go. I am torn what to do. Once you take a govt job, if you ever quit for private sector, you rarely get hired back. I would really love to use my CFA since I worked SO HARD for it, and see what happens. Moving to a different state is also part of the issue…
I’m not a career expert or anything but 62k sounds pretty good. I’m applying for jobs that pay 1800 CAD a month and can’t even get interviews. In my opinion, hiring someone with a job (even if it isn’t relevant) is more attractive than hiring an unemployed person so I would take it if I don’t see any big changes coming. Maybe, you’ll really enjoy the work life balance. Volante99, we should start an investment bank and hire 09 grads. There is so much supply they will practically work for free.
cpham Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > Volante99, we should start an investment bank and > hire 09 grads. There is so much supply they will > practically work for free. Who’s going to train them? 
Step 1: Open Investment Bank Step 2: Hire graduates for nothing Step 3: ??? Step 4: Profit
volante99 Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > We '09 graduates are damaged goods, left out to > dry. > > The market tanked right around the time we were > looking for internships and full time work, and > now that the finance industry is finally out of > the red, most of the large financial institutions > (and to a lessor extent some F500 companies) > specifically say they only want '10 graduates, no > '09 graduates for entry level hiring. Is this even > legal? > > Guess I’m too old to get into finance… I completely agree with you, volante99. We’re screwed. Gotta make the most of it while we have this time though
If you are an 09 grad at least you could go back to school, study for the GMAT. Tell the person that interviews you, “I don’t have the $$ for a quality masters” so I studied for the CFA. If you can’t afford grad school do every single designation under the sun, CFA, FRA, CAIA, etc at least you look busy. All your other friends that sit on their ass are road kill. Look at the positive you could be like me and under employed by 90% just to get healthcare for my kids and pay 1/4 of my actual monthly burn and the job has destroyed my resume but I have no choice. In 18 months put a fork in me if things don’t change. Or you could be smart and get out of the industry or get out of the USA and go to a place that has GDP growth. If I were 22 had a few $$ I’d move try to move to Australia.
I’m an '07 grad and have only one year of financial services experience so I consider myself to pretty much in the same boat as '09 grads. It’s difficult being 25 living with my parents and not being able to support myself… but in the meantime you gotta do what you can to make yourself competetive when jobs start coming back. I’m taking the CAIA in March and after that I’m signing up for CFA Level 1. Working part-time at Olympia Sports just to make a few bucks on the side in the meantime (to pay for the tests). Not exactly living the dream but hopefully it will pay off. And although seeing Olympia Sports on resume isn’t exactly what an investment banker is looking for it does look better then having a big gap in your resume. That is a big turnoff for any employer…
I already have CFA and no one really cares when I interview. They all seem to be looking for lots of experience. Even when I match that, then they decide hey we don’t need this position at all. That happened to one job I almost got. I found a job where I would get perfect experience with lots of growth for a small 2 person company. I offered them to work for free for 3 months as a trial, if they like me, they keep me, if not I will be happy with the experience. They turned me down!.
Yeah, professional certifications are pointless in this market. It’s all about experience, experience, experience. I have also offered to work for free for a few small firms and am always turned down.
Just curious but were you guys trying to transition i.e. equity research to fixed income? or staying within your field?
2009 MFE Graduate here… just got my first offer a week ago… Note I have yet to pass CFA I though…
yankees98a Wrote: ------------------------------------------------------- > I already have CFA and no one really cares when I > interview. They all seem to be looking for lots of > experience. Even when I match that, then they > decide hey we don’t need this position at all. > That happened to one job I almost got. > > I found a job where I would get perfect experience > with lots of growth for a small 2 person company. > I offered them to work for free for 3 months as a > trial, if they like me, they keep me, if not I > will be happy with the experience. They turned me > down!. You must have at least 4 years relevant work experience if you already hold the CFA, so I’m surprised you say that only experience seems to matter and it is hindering you finding a job.
I have 4 yrs of qualifying experience. However most jobs are looking for 5-10. Because of the CFA I get an interview from HR. However experience is misleading… 4 yrs of my experience consists of three jobs with one company. So I have 2 yrs experience in one area, 2 yrs in another Even so everything is very specific. Let’s say I did 2 yrs Equity Research with Health Care. If you get selected for an interview doing the same thing for Technology Companies someone may say you don’t have the correct experience. Also getting the interviews, and passing the first round has been easy… It’s the 2nd/3rd round I have been finding issues with. For example I easily passed the 1st two rounds at a major bank. Then the 3rd round was with a former PhD who used to worked with the Federal Reserve who was doing the hiring and was looking for someone with a different background… It’s just very difficult and I think the environment is getting worst not better.
I cleared L1 and worked in BO for 2.5 years. Got very sick of it, very sick of it. What is really sad is I am selling discount furniture until I find something decent and I am making a little more doing that than in BO. I would rather tell people how to our layaway works than process one more corporate action.